Churchill
College, Cambridge: Files PHPP 10/1
Berlin October 1933 - September 1935
('enclosures from Moley [Sir
Orme] Sargent'); and PHPP 10/2,
Diary September 1935 - April 1937 (when
Phipps was posted to Paris). Note, this
is not a complete summary,
merely a listing of
highlights.

On January 13, 1942 Sargent sent
"the two manuscript volumes of your
Berlin Diary 1933-37" back to Phipps
regretting the FO could give no final
answer about publication; the letter is
a refusal in fact on the grounds that
the diary "reproduces a very
considerable number of documents
included in the official collection"
being readied for publication.

October 24, 1933

[Phipps's first meeting with
Hitler.] "Herr Hitler then proceeded,
after a long disquisition on Russia and
the danger which that country presented to
Germany from an industrial, economic and
agricultural point of view owing to the
lower standard of living existing there,
to remark rather vaguely that he sought
certain possibilities of expansion in
eastern Europe: he disclaimed, however all
wish to rectify the 'absurd and unfair
corridor question' by force." [A very
hostile, sarcastic account].

November 1, 1933

[Neurath orders immediate release
of Daily Telegraph's Mr Panter, arrested
for spying.] "He did say however that
the police had for some time been
listening to Mr Panter's telephone
conversations, which showed him to be most
unfairly prejudiced against the German
government. If this be true, he has been
imprudent." Suggests advising British
correspondents to watch their talk on the
phone.

December 5, 1933

[Further meeting with Hitler].
Lengthy account. "The Chancellor, even
when frenzied, was friendly."

February 24, 1934

[Eden's visit to Hitler February
20, 21, visit was an undoubted
success.]

February 28, 1934

[Release of Bulgarian prisoners,
Dimitroff etc.; Göring's views on
them, and on Reichstag trial.]
"General Göring however seemed to
have a greater detestation for what he
described as cowardly Communists such as
Herr Löbe, who recently expressed
himself in an admiring manner in the
Belgian press about the Hitler regime,
than for Dimitroff and his companions.
General Göring felt special contempt
for the cowardice of Herr Hentschell, a
prominent communist, who recently wrote
from his concentration camp to say that he
would like to have been behind Hitler's
chair in the Reichstag on January 30th
last and to serve in future as a pillar of
the National Socialist party." [Also
talks with Alfred Rosenberg about religion
etc]

April 18, 1934

[Bierabend with Rosenberg and
Darré]. "The Reichswehr
position is also difficult. Röhm is
insistent that certain S.A. leaders should
be made Generals as soon as expansion
begins in order to guarantee the loyalty
of the new Army. To this the Reichswehr
and President von Hindenburg remain
vigorously opposed."

April 25, 1934

"Another wrangle has taken place over
the appointment of Herr Himmler as head of
the Prussian political police despite the
strong opposition of General Göring.
Herr Himmler has taken over the political
police in almost all the other states and
his new appointment constitutes an
encroachment on General Göring's
preserve." [This was just one example
of the friction between the subordinates.
In the economic and financial sphere Ley
vs Schacht and Dr Schmitt; many were now
criticizing Goebbels; "the relations
between Stabschef Röhm and General
von Reichenau are notoriously bad."
Darré's stock was falling. Hitler's
personal prestige remains as high as ever,
but the public was shaken by these other
squabbles.

April 29, 1934

[long talk with Ribbentrop]

May 30, 1934

[More on Hitler-Röhm
dispute.]

June 7, 1934

Yesterday we lunched with Herr and Frau
von Ribbentrop. [...] Herr
Himmler, the head of the SS and newly
appointed Chief of the Secret Police, was
also present. He told me that the
Communist danger was by no means over in
Germany, where thousands of Communist
propaganda leaflets were still distributed
daily. Ten thousand most desperate
communists were at large in this country
ready to run any risk in their cause. Herr
Himmler seems to share Herrn von Papen's
views of Russia, and asserted that any
communist activities in the British
Colonies and the Dominions were due to the
inspiration of that Power.

June 10, 1934

[The famous visit to
Carinhall]

June 12, 1934

[Dinner with the Goebbels's]
"Everything was in perfect taste. Frau
Goebbels speaks French well and is an
accomplished hostess. Dr Goebbels is to my
mind far and away the most intelligent and
agreeable member of the Nazi party that I
have met. He is also their best orator,
but above all he is the only Nazi I know
with a sense of humour. He is of course
none the less dangerous on that
account."

June 25, 1934

[German Derby run at Hamburg
yesterday. Episode with Papen and
Goebbels. Several prominent Jewish
racehorse owners like Weinberg and
Oppenheim were present].

July 4, 1934

I asked the Minister for Foreign
Affairs whether he could give me any
information regarding recent events; Baron
von Neurath said that it was now clear
from seized document that a Putsch was to
have taken place in August, but that the
culprits having learned that certain
details had reached Hitler's ears, decided
to strike at 4 p.m. on June 30th, and to
form a completely SA ministry, except for
the Vice Chancellorship, which was to have
been taken by general; von Schleicher.

Röhm was to have combined the
offices or Minister for War and Head of
the SA, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs
being taken by Herrn von Detten. It was
hoped to sweep Hitler off his legs, rescue
him from the non-Nazi members of the
Government and induce him to remain on as
Chancellor. At Breslau events had
developed so quickly that the Reichswehr
and the SA were already facing one another
across barricades.

[Neurath added that 44 or 46 had
been executed. SA would be reorganised as
purely political body.] "The SS on the
other hand, young men in the prime of
life, will doubtless gain in prestige and
importance.... Anxiety is now felt in the
ranks of the SS lest their brown shirted
rivals should seek to avenge themselves
not so much on the Führer as on Dr
Goebbels and General Göring,
Röhm's enemies. The surviving
associates of murderers like Heines and
supergangsters like Killinger, who planned
and carried out the Rathenau murder,
Schneidhuber , Schmid of Munich and others
, are themselves redoubtable gangsters."
"Something has changed since this last
weekend and this was clear on Monday
afternoon when Hitler and Baron von
Neurath drove past the Embassy through the
deserted Wilhelmstrasse to make their
first official visit to the King and Queen
of Siam. The Führer looked pale and
strange in his high hat. The police had
cleared the street and had even forbidden
the people to open their windows. The
public were herded behind a cordon of
police at a respectable distance from the
Adlon Hotel at the corner of the Linden. I
heard some cheering as the Dictator,
followed by several motors with SS guards,
debouched from the empty Wilhelm Strasse,
but I missed the usual note of tremulous
enthusiasm."

July 17, 1934

[Blomberg justifies "last week" to
Phipps the killing of the
Schleichers]. "If General von
Schleicher had not drawn his revolver when
the police came to his house he would,
nevertheless have been shot the same
evening for treachery to Herr Hitler and
treasonable plotting with a foreign
Power."

September 12, 1934

[Hitler receives the diplomatic
corps]

November 27, 1934

[Is received by Hitler to give UK
views on current German
rearmament]

December 15, 1934

[Lunches with Ribbentrops and
Goebbels's]

January 2, 1935

[At New Year reception Hitler talks
with great warmth of the British
people]

January 23, 1935

[Has long talk with Hitler: Saar,
Austria, Memel, desire for agreement with
UK, welfare of the British Empire,
"fervent hope that India would never be
lost to it."]

January 31, 1935

[Yesterday's talk of Hitler with
Lord Lothian and Mr Evans. Lothian
impressed by Hitler's desire for peace
with Britain, fleet no greater than 33% of
British.]

February 28, 1935 et esq.

[Proposed visit by Eden and Simon
to Berlin]

March 16, 1935:

[Göring throws a dinner for 40
including Goebbels's and Himmlers.]
"General Göring thus resumed the
series of sumptuous repasts inaugurated by
the late Captain Rohm in February 1934
interrupted by the 'blood bath' of June
30th and contemptuously described by the
Führer in the Reichstag in July as
'so called diplomatic banquets.'"
[Description of lavish surroundings,
Emmy Sonnemann announced as
fiancée, white marble hall,
Gobelins, invisible string band, Hitler
had ordered him to marry Emmy; Göring
showed Phipps and François Poncet
over the vast residence. ]

March 16 1935

[Hitler tells Phipps and Francois
Poncet of introduction of
conscription]

[Eden and Cranborne visit to
Berlin. Göring's happiness
at.]

March 29, 1935:

[Goebbels invites him March 28 to
premiere of Riefenstahl's Triumph des
Willens]. "No educated person should
fail to see it before reaching a definite
opinion on Germany and her present
leaders."

April 17, 1935

[Göring invites him to opera
on April 9 on eve of his wedding.
Description of the Göring
wedding.]

October 8, 1935:

[Lunch with Blomberg: Italy,
Mussolini, German colonies]

December 3, 1935:

[Lunch with Schacht: colonial
demands, Schacht claims credit for having
diverted Hitler towards colonial demands
and away from expansion in the east].
Hitler's antisemitism. "Dr Schacht pointed
out to me that, apart from the fact that
antisemitism was a cardinal principle of
her Hitler's policy, it was practically
impossible for him to enforce moderation
on all his subordinates. For instance, he
knew for a fact that certain of the
Gauleiter who had recently been admonished
by Herr Hitler in the sense of moderation
had told their subordinates that they felt
certain despite the Führer's orders,
that they would be interpreting his true
wishes if they continued their persecution
of the Jews."

December 10, 1935

[Many leading Germans including
Ausw Amt favour return to Rapallo, an
entente with Moscow].

December 13, 1935:

"I had a long and most unsatisfactory
interview with the Chancellor today."
France's bilateral pact with Russia. The
air pact with Britain. "He referred to
Russia's enormous strength on land and in
the air and remarked that Berlin might
easily in a few hours be reduced to a heap
of ashes by a Russian air attack before
the League or any other body had even
begun to discuss the question of how to
deal with it." Hitler remarks that on
March 16, 1935 he could "quite well have
proceeded to reoccupy the demilitarised
zone" without provoking war. He had
however been content to [...]
Locarno and had therefore abstained. "He
said that Russia was a foul and unclean
inhabitant of the house with whom the
other dwellers should have no political
truck whatever." (Though he would enter
into commercial transactions with him).
"In fact the Russians were noxious
microbes who should be politically
isolated." Hitler's lack of love for Italy
since her press campaign of 1934. Hitler
mutters throughout. "At times he ground
the floor with his heel as though crushing
a worm."

December 14, 1935

[Reflecting on that talk] "He
... struck a cynical note of regret at
having failed to reoccupy the zone on
March 16th last year. It seems probable
that he will proceed to that reoccupation
whenever a favourable opportunity presents
itself."

January 12, 1936

[Description of Göring's
January 11, 1936 lavish ball at the new
Aeroklub]

January 28, 1936

[Hitler attends funeral service for
late King George V at British embassy
church]

March 12, 1936

[Speculates on reasons and policies
and conferences underlying Hitler's
remilitarisation of Rhineland; strong
opposition of German generals to the
move.]

April 19, 1936

[Represents King at the Dresden
funeral of Botschafter von Hoesch;
ambassador had died in England.]

May 14, 1936

[Hitler receives him with
Ribbentrop; reply to France; Spanish civil
war; Russia had occupied Czech airfields.
Air treaty impossible given the size of
Russia's huge air force. "He again urged
general prohibition of bombing altogether
as being far more practical." Attack on
Gleichberechtigung.

[Italy's surprising victory in
Abyssinia, "Hitler is clearly lost in
admiration of Mussolini."]

June 17, 1936

[Hitler embarrassed by Italian
advances to him, presence in Berlin of
Edda Ciano, he hankers after exclusive
Anglo-German entente.]

October 21, 1936:

[Hitler tremendously impressed by
energy of Lloyd George who visited Berghof
early September.]

October 21, 1936:

[Ribbentrop came to farewell dinner
October 20.] "He told Frances
[Phipps] that on the whole he did
not really know whether [Sir
Oswald] Mosley sprang from the soul of
the English people. Frances replied that
he undoubtedly did not. Mosley was here
incognito the other day and did not, it
seems, make a favourable impression."

October 22, 1936

[Schacht and the Colonies, and Mein
Kampf.]

October 30, 1936

[Again Schacht and the colonies.
Threatens a deal with Russia, if Britain
won't play ball. Schacht's character
assessed: not a real Nazi at all. "One
might compare Dr Schacht's position to
that of a skilled navigator who in a
moment of pique joined a pirate vessel,
confident that he would reform the pirate
captain and his crew."

November 10, 1936

[Regrets the flow of English
visitors from Mayfair to Germany.

December 9, 1936:

[Fury that Schacht in speech at
Frankfurt today refers to Phipps' remarks,
without identifying him.]

February 4, 1937

[Last night Hitler took him to a
room for 20 minute talk after dinner for
the ambassadors. Nothing very new.]
Spain: "The Reds would end by murdering
the entire 'intelligentsia' in their part
of the country, His information was that
they had already murdered nearly 180,000."
West pact, armaments, colonies.

April 9, 1937:

[Farewell visit to Görings.
Latter's grandiose plans for
reconstruction of Berlin, the Elbe bridge
at Hamburg, and at Nuremberg. Four year
Plan. Buna. Oil. Fats. Labour shortage. If
only Britain had accepted Germany's offer
of rapprochement. Degenerate France in
decay. Strikes in Britain. Then tea with
the Goebbels family, "with the little
children of our amiable host and hostess
executing dances to the strains of an
old-world musical box."]

April 15, 1937

[Hitler invites the Phipps's to a
farewell tea on April 14. Forty minutes
alone with him.] Spain: Franco would
probably win, "but it might last a long
time." Hitler talks with fanatical
violence about Austria. Had abandon claim
to Alsace Lorraine. "The era of surprises,
he said, was over." War tribute to "the
courage and efficiency of the British
troops in the trenches facing him during
the war."